*Key to Obedience & More

        In today's Gospel reading from Luke 4, the spirit of an unclean demon in a man recognized Jesus. The man cried out in a loud voice, "What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are – the Holy One of God!" With authority and power Jesus commanded the unclean spirits to come out of the man and the demoniac was cured. The spirits knew who Jesus was and obeyed him. If we know who Jesus is well, we would want to obey him too! How much you obey the Lord is proportional to how much you know him. The key to holiness is to know Christ as much as possible. As a matter of fact, everything about you is dependent upon your relationship with God. Surrender to him to let him reveal himself to you fully.

*God Forever New & Incredible

        Communion experience. Even though I knew without a doubt that I was receiving the Lord Jesus in the Holy Eucharist, it's still incredible to me that I was receiving him.

Exciting Spiritual Journey

        My Catholic spiritual journey is exciting because I do not know how the Lord is going to lead me, yet knowing that he will lead me on for my good and his glory. It's knowing the unknown.  

Danger in Following God's Will

        Even though we intend to follow God's will, there is the danger of taking our own good will as God's will. When Jesus showed to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem, suffer, and be killed and raised, Peter, not wishing such things to happen to his Lord, rebuked him. Jesus then said to Peter, "Get behind me, Satan! You are an obstacle to me. You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do." (Matthew 16.23.) Wow, let us learn how to think as God does first! 

*Beauty of Perfect Obedience

        Today the Lord made me see the true beauty of fulfilling his will, that is, perfect obedience, and the rich reward he will give to those faithful servants, now his friends, and always his children and heirs. 

**How to Be Truly Free*

        You hear about all kinds of freedom . . . freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, freedom of choosing to keep or terminate the unborn, freedom of worship, etc. It seems that basically, people demand the freedom of being able to do whatever they wish to do, calling it their right. But all such freedoms are created by man and none of them can set you free. The only true freedom we ever need is the freedom given by God when we submit ourselves to him, for we are only free when we get to do God's will. Think about it.  

**Know God to Know

        Know God and you will know. Here "you will know" means you will know all you need to know, which is the will of God. 

*Unique Lord

        It struck me that when Jesus asked his disciples to deny themselves, take up their cross, and follow him, and spelled out other stringent demands to all, he did it out of love for our good and not in any way to lord it over us. Unlike the lords, gurus, teachers, leaders, kings, heads of state . . . of the world, he had no ego, no ulterior motive, and no self-glorification. He simply reveals what we need to know for us to be saved.

Yearning for God

        Today my heart sees and my soul knows clearly that if everyone would understand, believe in, and follow Christ, we will have the most beautiful world to live in. But, alas, it's no use dreaming about it, only something to pray for. All this makes me yearn for and seek solace in the Lord even more – how much he loves us and how much we need him!

How God Has Made Us

        We can see that St. Augustine is right in saying that God has made us for himself so that our hearts are restless until they rest in him. If you think about it, you'll see the many different ways God has made us. One came to me today: God has made us so that we feel uneasy when we avoid him. This becomes obvious when you talk to people about God.

Spiritual Warfare Time

       In today's crazy, godless world, the spiritual warfare being waged against God is so fierce that we need to hold onto the Lord for dear life to be sure of survival. For Christians, this is not the time to lay back, remain neutral, or be just lukewarm. It's time to do as St. Paul advised in Ephesians 6: Put on the armor of God to stand firm against the tactics of the devil. Stand fast for the gospel of peace. Hold faith as a shield to quench all the flaming arrows of the evil one. And take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit. It's time to fight hell like hell!

*Why Trust God?

        The reason we should trust God is that he sees the overall picture for all eternity, while we only see one thing happening at one time.

Too Big for Heaven?

        The gate that leads to life is narrow. Many cannot go in simply because their big inflated ego makes it impossible for them to get through it. Deflate the ego with humility and things should work out all right. 

No Quick Faith

        I believe that by the time you are aware that Jesus has arrived on Judgment Day, it is already too late to repent and ask for God's forgiveness, for faith would be absent. The time to believe is before you die or the Second Coming, whichever happens first. 

Humorous Observation

        At church this morning, the larger than normal attendance told me that parishioners were there for Saturday morning confession. I noticed that some people who usually sits elsewhere chose to sit in the last row closest to the confession room, hoping to get to confession first. What happened was that this made them almost last in going up to receive Communion. And by the time they came back, those who received Communion first had already lined up for confession. So it's a case of "the last will be last, and the first will be first" or perhaps "hoping to be first will be last, but planning to be first will be first." 

First and Primary Goal

        Today, we heard the parable of the talents from Matthew 25 at morning Mass. The lesson I learned from it was that, as Christians, we must be bold, forward-thinking, and diligent in bearing fruit for the Lord. And the best way to achieve that is by abandoning ourselves in God to get all the guidance, strength, and power we need. It seems that whatever we want to accomplish, this should be the way. Then why not make abandonment in God our first and primary goal and let all things flow thereupon? 

*Challenging Question

        Do you dare to say that Christ had come and died for nothing? To say so is to deny that God loves you and proclaim that Christ is not the Son of God! If you don't dare, then you should submit yourself to him right this moment to acknowledge that God so loves you that he gave his only Son, so that if you believe in him, you might not perish but might have eternal life.

God's Saving Grace

        Many of us after toiling and struggling to find security and happiness in this world will eventually realize that life is empty without God. Even though they have sinned much for many years, this awakening can bring them right back to reconciliation with God. Therefore, many will be saved in the end. Without such grace, not too many of us can make heaven. Better late than never for sure; but still, it's much better early than late, for you would live a happier life now and have a smoother transition to the next life later.